Does Armando Oliveros want to be City Commissioner?

By Michael Miller

Is Armando Oliveros going to run for the city of SouthMiami Commission? Well, folks, I just happened to run into Armando at Casa Larios and it looks like he is already getting into shape to take it on one more time, come February. You might remember that he ran last time and came in 2nd place, with Bob “The Bobble Head” Welsh besting him for the coveted commission seat.

Speaking of Bobble Head, it looks like the supposed recall that would have sent him packing has taken a hiatus of sorts and my guess is that it’s over, kaput and finally dead in the water. So, Bob, our fearless leader lives on.

The city of pleasant living, AKA South Miami was recently honored by the Arbor Day Foundation which named the city A 2012 Tree City USA. The city which was also honored last year for its “committment to effective forest management” is going green green green. BTW the Arbor Day Foundation partners with the U.S. Forest Service and the National Association of State Foresters.

For more information on the program go to arborday.org/TreeCityUSA.

Heard that the South Miami Police Dept recently had a DUI stop on SW 62 Ave and US1. Story is that there were some seven arrests, at least one DUI, one drug something or another and some other goodies. Gotta tell ya folks, these type of stops are a good teaching tool for all those that were stopped and didn’t get arrested and a super way to catch the impaired folks. And for those people that didn’t like the traffic challenges that it caused… Well how can I say it? Ok, here it is… Too Bad!

City Commissioners should a look at the numerous areas in unincorporated Miami-Dade County which will soon be under study to see if they are fit to become cities. There are at least four areas under consideration, perhaps more, but as of right now, in the south end of the county, these are the areas:

• On the east side the Florida Turnpike west to Krome Ave., (from SW 8 Street to Bird Road)

• Another one from Bird Road to Kendall Dr. from the Turnpike to Krome

• Athird area is from the Turnpike to 137 Ave and from Kendall to SW 152 St.

• Another area under consideration is Richmond Heights.

And I’ll just betcha that right outside the South Miami city limits, west on Miller Drive and west on Sunset Drive might be on the block for annexing. And I cant help but wonder if the area just east of SW 57 Ave., south of Sunset Drive, called High Pines, might be swallowed up by South Miami. Can you just imagine what those well-healed folks in High Pines will be thinking about the prospect of having to join the city of unpleasant Living. If I was a betting sorta of guy, my money would be on those folks wanting to get annexed into the city of Coral Gables.

Miami Children’s Hospital, the worldrenowned specialty hospital that has helped thousands of children over the decades since it was first known as Variety Children’s located in Schenley Park, is trying to establish a 10-bed-maternity-facility and is pitting the hospital with Jackson Health System for these patients.

Children’s over the past few years has tried to establish such a maternity facility at the hospital but has failed to get state approval in the past. The institution is now trying to get the Florida Legislature involved to grant the hospital the capability even though the Florida Agency of Health Care Administration (ACHA) had not approved a certificate of need and birth rates are down in Miami-Dade County.

The Watchdog Report contacted state Rep. Eddie Gonzalez, R-Hialeah (Net worth Neg. $18,326) on Thursday to ask about the matter he is championing along with state Rep. Jose Oliva, R- Miami Lakes (Net worth $9.67 million), the potential Speaker of the House in 2016. Gonzalez said he is pushing the issue that is an amendment to another House bill that applies to the Villagers development in Central Florida owned by a major GOP backer and is still working its way through the legislature. Gonzalez the “Father of three” children said he is pushing the measure because “These kids ultimately get transported” to Miami Children’s because these “are precondition mothers with the kids,” including “Blue Babies,” and the bill now would require the hospital to have “Maternity Center Staff” and it is not “About the dollars, but saving lives,” the legislator said. He also noted that the House budget included significant “funding for Jackson” and said a former ACHA expert said if he had been asked about this ten years ago. He would have “responded no” but he said recently after all the technical medical advances. “It should be looked at” and Gonzalez noted the pediatric specialty hospital sees babies from around the “entire state” and why he brought it to the legislature, he said. And critics that have expressed concern about the mothers health and available specialists on site should be mollified he thought since a full maternity staff requirement was added to the amendment’s language he thought.

The Watchdog Report in an exclusive interview with Miami-Dade Commission Chair Rebeca Sosa Thursday on the matter indicated she “Tries to support all the hospitals in my area,” which has Miami Children’s Hospital smack in the middle of her commission district. However, she did “not know the details,” of the state legislation, she said. However, she did “believe mothers whose babies might be at risk should be able to have that choice,” of where they might want to give birth to their new child, she thought.

During a recent marathon Miami-Dade County Board of County Commissioners meeting, the Commissioners approved a resolution sponsored by Commissioner Dennis Moss for the erection, construction and operation of a helipad at Jackson South Community Hospital, a necessary feature if the hospital is to be a Class II Trauma Center, as the Jackson South Hospital wants it to be. Moss detailed the history of why the hospital was so important in South Dade and when it was bought by the Health Trust back in the early 2000s and fulfilled a “promise” made to residents back in 1991 when a county wide vote dedicated a halfcent sales tax in revenues to the county’s public hospital. The pledge was made back then to the South Dade community by County Commissioner Arthur Teele, Jr., and Jackson CEO Ira Clark, both now deceased, and Moss believed the helipad was an important component to bring trauma patients too the newly revamped facility.

Moss after being elected a county commissioner back then pushed the Jackson board over the years to make that a reality he said. He noted that his efforts to get a public hospital in the area, after the county tore down a earlier facility but did not replace it that he met “a lot of resistance,” in getting this done. And the acquisition of the then Deering Hospital was a “promise made and a promise kept,” said Commissioner José “Pepe” Diaz during the discussion and Commission Vice Chair Lynda Bell noted that while “Jackson [South] has been a good neighbor, Jackson has to continue working with the neighbors.” She also got a amendment passed that would have the county looking at the placement of “sound barriers” and perhaps look at the cost of the “extension of the wall” trying to mitigate the effect of the sound of the helicopters arrival to local residents.

And the story around town is that when Jackson South gets approval for a trauma center, that it will, according to most estimates get back somewhere around 60% of that business that the main campus of Jackson Memorial lost to Kendall Regional Medical Center since it started provided trauma services about a year ago. BTW, the story is that JMH lost around $28 million in trauma revenue to Kendall last year.